RADIO: SLIGHTLY OUT TO LUNCH

by PETER TATCHELL (reprinted from LAUGH MAGAZINE #23, 2002)

In its seventy year history, A.B.C. radio has not been a font of local comedy productions. From the 1940s to 1970s it was content to air dozens of B.B.C. classics from I.T.M.A.and Much-Binding-In-The-Marshto adaptations of Steptoe and Sonand Dad’s Army.

When it occasionally indulged in bursts of creativity they were often clones of successful British offerings. The launch of 2JJ in the mid-1970s resulted in several comedy serials and the groundbreaking Naked Vicar Show but by the 1980s, apart from short contributions by such performers as John Clarke, things had returned to the status quo.

In 1984, however, Aunty’s decision-makers gave the green light to a project combining the genres of comedy and nostal­gia to form Slightly Out To Lunch(the name referring to the proposed Sunday lunchtime timeslot). A series of thirteen epi­sodes was commissioned, offering a mix of contemporary television and movie satire, Pythonesque surrealism, several regular characters and a couple of serials. It was all brought together with a flavour of 1930s music supplied by musical director Arthur Greenslade and his Bondi Broadcasters.

The cast and writing team was headed by nostalgia buffs Tony Baldwin (one-time host of A.B.C. radio’s Saturday night 78rpm-fest Sentimental Journey) and Kevin Daly, whose ex­tensive recording collection of the era would later be used by a number of CD labels. From the acting fraternity came such performers as Peter Whitford, Drew Forsythe and Lance Curtis, along with the writing and performing talents of Angela Webber, Adam Bowen, Jane Hardes and others.

Regular segments of Slightly Out To Lunchincluded the “Cooee Newsreel”, anachronistic and often bizarre parodies of those featured on cinema screens before the era of televi­sion and “Great Moments From The Cutting Room Floor” with supposed out-takes from film classics like Casablancaand Gold Diggers Of 1934. Also harking back to movie on-gins were the serials “It Came From Widgiemooltha” (about a mutant merino which runs amok across Australia) and the Star Wars-inspired “Luke Jaywalker and Imperial Echo”.

Television commercials and programmes like Towards 2000, 60 Minutesand the various other current affairs and lifestyles shows of the day were prime target for satirical treatment, as was the programming lineup of the creatively-impaired Channel 14. Another occasional feature of the series was an incongruous linking of the A.B.C. Sport commentary team heard covering historical events like the Battle of Trafalgar or interviewing Long John Silver.

Perhaps the show’s most popular regular was resident vet, Bruce Losis (played by Peter Smalley), whose responses to mundane queries about animals, birds and reptiles often went off into strange psychological flights of fancy. Other charac­ters appearing were radical right wing politician Sir Horace Tuckerbox, interviewer Gillian Cross and arts guru Terry Leg-iron. And on a number of occasions the musical numbers would feature a newly-written George Formbyesque vocal.

Unlike most comedy shows, Slightly Out To Lunchwas recorded without the presence of a studio audience, which meant it could utilize a large cast of players not all of whom needed to be present at the same session. Unfortunately this lack of response tended to work against the overall success of the series which would have benefited from the contagious effect of audience laughter.

Slightly Out To Lunchalso suffered at the hands of A.B.C. programmers (long notorious for their cavalier treatment of imported TV comedies) who would drop occasional editions in certain states when this conflicted with weekend sporting coverage of test cricket or the like. Possibly to make amends for these annoying pre-emptions, five specially-compiled highlight editions of the show were broadcast four months after the conclusion of its first season of programmes.

Six weeks later, on Christmas Day, a special festive edi­tion called Slightly Out To Christmas Lunchwas aired across the nation with targets being Prime Minister Bob Hawke, the Three Wise Men and Santa’s elves. The Cooee Newsreel covered yuletide activities around the globe and Pet’s Corner received a plaintive plea from one young listener trying to save his turkey from ending up part of the Christmas dinner.

The merchandising arm of the A.B.C. then decided to get into the act by releasing an LP of first season highlights as a prelude to a second series of programmes, which began in March 1985.

Thirteen episodes later (in some states, anyway) and Slightly Out To Lunchhad run its course. Though never achieving the acceptance or financial success of its predecessor The Naked Vicar Showin being adapted for television, it possessed an interesting degree of wit and creativity.

By the mid-1980s Australian TV comedy was being aimed at a much younger demographic than something relying on the nostalgic echoes of 1930s music and movies . . . it was an era that would increasingly depend on university graduates and observational standup from comedy clubs.

(Other examples of audience-free comedies included a handful of 1950s B.B.C. radio shows like Bedtime With Braden, In All Direc­tions with Peter Ustinov and Peter Jones, and Eric Barker’s Just Fancy. Later attempts include Ronnie Barker’s Lines From My Grandfather’s Forehead, most of the Monty Python LPs and Stephen Fry’s Saturday Night Fry in the late 1980s.)

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